


Clarity

by TenSpencerRiedPlease



Series: Toss A Coin to Your Witcher [2]
Category: The Witcher (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bodyguard Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, Emotionally Constipated Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, Good Parent Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, Humor, Jaskier | Dandelion Has Feelings, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:02:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22741444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenSpencerRiedPlease/pseuds/TenSpencerRiedPlease
Summary: Yennefer looks over the numbers happily and for once Jaskier isn’t mad about it. “I made a popular thing!” he says, excited.Geralt frowns from the couch, “you made up a little over ten percent of all record sales last year, you make a lot of popular things,” he points out.
Relationships: Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon & Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon & Jaskier | Dandelion, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion
Series: Toss A Coin to Your Witcher [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1635163
Comments: 44
Kudos: 824





	Clarity

**Author's Note:**

> Me: Coin is a oneshot.
> 
> Me: but there are many more adventures for them all to have.
> 
> Me: well I guess I'll make it a series but I'm not going to like it.
> 
> (Thats a lie, I had a great time lol).
> 
> Warnings for mentions of drug use.

Yennefer looks over the numbers happily and for once Jaskier isn’t mad about it. “I made a popular thing!” he says, excited.

Geralt frowns from the couch, “you made up a little over ten percent of _all_ record sales last year, you make a _lot_ of popular things,” he points out.

“No, _I_ make a lot of popular things Jaskier just sings them. By the way, I hate all your stupid sappy love songs as of late but I do have to admit the tone and style you’ve set to them is good even if the lyrics are insufferable,” she tells him.

Well, its about as close to a compliment as he’ll ever get out of Yen so he’ll take it. Most of her real compliments are reserved for Geralt and only kind of. Yennefer doesn’t to emotional connection well. “I was going to say the same thing about Yennefer being the mastermind behind the music. But Witcher is all me,” he says excitedly.

Yennefer wrinkles her nose a little, “I’ve still got the marketing on that, and Geralt created the original hype so still only sort of you,” she says.

“Oh excuse me, I did the drawings, and the songs, and the story, and- how is Geralt stealing my phone and taking pictures actually work?” he asks, offended.

Yennefer just smiles though and it occurs to him that she’s… she’s _teasing_ him. Like as a friend. Yennefer is _teasing_ him like an old friend and oh good god, what is he to do with _that_? He stares at her for a long moment, shocked at least until Geralt breaks the silence.

“Tell your fans if they throw any more coins at me I’ll murder them.” He looks up and he looks serious about it too so Jaskier sighs.

“They’re trying to be friendly, be nice,” Jaskier says.

Geralt doesn’t look convinced whatsoever of this. “If someone started throwing coins at me I’d skin them alive,” Yennefer says. “And by the way, thanks for making me _deformed_.”

“You end up you know, like you,” he says, gesturing to her usual self.

Yennefer wrinkles her nose, “Actually I think I would have preferred you left me deformed. I had work done when I was younger, thought being beautiful would make it easier for me and it hasn’t. Mostly I have the same problems but instead of being dismissed because I was ugly now I’m dismissed because I’m beautiful. No right way to operate in business as a woman I suppose,” she says, shrugging.

“I pity the sorry soul who doesn’t take you seriously,” Jaskier says, shivering. He can’t even imagine the brass balls that would take and he’s certainly not willing to push his limits with her on account of she’s frighteningly efficient. And also good with an insult. She’s like an eighth grader, she can pinpoint anyone’s insecurity in less than five seconds and exploit it in creative and mean ways.

*

Jaskier stands with his phone outstretched in front of him, the horse Geralt apparently loves dearly behind him. “Many of you have asked if Geralt is a cat person or a dog person and it turns out he’s neither. He’s a _horse girl_. Check out his horse,” Jaskier says, turning to look at the horse but Geralt interrupts him.

“Don’t touch Roach,” he says. Given that he wasn’t about to _pet_ that thing he’s got no problem following Geralt’s instructions.

“You named your horse _Roach_?” he asks.

“The _third_ ,” Ciri offers from the sidelines.

“You’ve had _three_ Roaches?” he asks, baffled.

“The first met an untimely death, the second one lived a long and good life, and this one is relatively new. I thought I might teach Ciri how to care for her,” Geralt says, walking up and petting the horse. Jaskier frowns, turning back to the camera and squinting.

‘ _Three_ Roaches,’ he mouths at the camera before ending the video and posting it to his Twitter. The response is near instantaneous- people are as enthused that Geralt is a horse girl as Jaskier was when he found out.

Ciri looks over to Geralt though, excited. “You’re going to teach me to take care of her?” she asks, eyes bright with happiness. Jaskier smiles at the two of them mostly because Geralt has no idea what to do with Ciri’s excitement. He nods and has Ciri come over, explaining how to approach the horse all the while. Jaskier sits back and enjoys the sight even if he’s certain Roach is about to eat someone’s hands. Horses are soulless little beasts, he _knows_ it but he won’t tell Geralt how he feels. He suspects it’ll end up in Horse 101 lessons and he doesn’t need horse lessons to know they’re awful. He’s seen it in their eyes.

Geralt goes on to explain a lot of horse things to Ciri, who soaks it all up happily while Jaskier writes. For a long time it was hard for him to pull anything out and he now suspects it was the drugs. He hadn’t even _meant_ to quit but with Geralt around as less of a bodyguard and more of a lover plus Ciri he hasn’t really felt the need to get into them. Yennefer is happy for it, makes less of a mess for her to clean up later, but Jaskier also feels better for it too. He used to think he had to do them to keep up with his life, which is always a _lot_ thanks to Yennefer’s attempting to squeeze everything out of him that she can but he’s come to find maybe actually human connections were what he was missing, not energy.

He feels more energetic now when the hardest drug he does is usually an energy drink or two every once and awhile. And sometimes a little pot, but who doesn’t indulge in _that_? Except Geralt, obviously. Even _Yennefer_ smokes so clearly Geralt is a freak of nature.

“What is it that you’re scribbling down so fast over there? Better be Witcher things or Yen will have your balls,” Geralt tells him, looking at him over the horse. He can’t even see poor Ciri, who is probably three minutes away from having the horse eat her hands.

“Songs, she’ll still be happy. I’ve got none of my colors out here to do Witcher things and Yennefer also has like… _so_ much material.” Two whole volumes and that’s just what they’ve put together. Technically there’s almost a whole third volume too, but he’s completing the drawings that go along with that still. And he has plenty more story too.

“You know Yen can never have _too_ much material,” Geralt says. “But she won’t be actively upset with songs. Do you want to pet Roach?” he asks.

Jaskier most definitely does _not_ want to pet Roach but he stands anyway. “Sure,” he says, ignoring his nerves and walking over to the horse. Geralt is there beside him and it would be so sweet, the way he picks up Jaskier’s hand to pet the horse, if not for the _horse_ bit.

Roach doesn’t react too well, lifting her head and letting out a disgruntled horse noise that has Jaskier pulling away and hiding behind Geralt. “Damnit, I _knew_ that soulless little beast would try and eat my hands!” he says, horrified and lucky to have made it out with both hands in tact. He makes _money_ off those hands. And if Roach didn’t take them both out Yennefer would take what was left.

“ _What_?” Geralt asks, turning around and Jaskier can’t believe he’s actually willing to turn his back on that thing. “Roach doesn’t eat _hands_ ,” he says like this is the most offensive thing he’s ever heard.

“That you know of,” Jaskier mumbles. She does, he _knows_ it.

Geralt, on the other hand, appears to be going through the five stages of grief beside him. “You don’t like _horses_?” he asks. The way he says it is like Jaskier has admitted that he believes the earth is flat- like he’s disputing something that’s definitively true and that horses are good and not monstrous little hand eaters is _not_ an undisputed fact.

“No, no one who is sane and normal _likes_ horses!”

“I like horses,” Geralt says, frowning.

“You neglected to tell me we had a child until _after_ we started dating! That just proves my point if anything!” Geralt reels backwards like he’s been hit with more unexpected knowledge and oh _no_ he does not get to act this dramatic over nothing. “You stop that! You’ve been spending too much time with me, acting all dramatic over horses being the worst! This is common knowledge, I will have you know.”

“Since _when_ is Ciri _your_ child?” he asks and Jaskier huffs.

“Well I can’t go around pretending she doesn’t exist now, can I? If you date a parent their children are part of that deal, _obviously_ Geralt.”

“Oh, that is so sweet!” Ciri says from the other side of Roach. Ugh, _Roach_.

Geralt stares at him for a long moment, seemingly lost between feeling offense over his dislike of horses and whatever the other thing is. “I love you,” he says unexpectedly.

“I love you too Geralt, even if you like _horses_ ,” he says, flicking his fingers at Roach. She makes some type of horse noise that absolutely means his days are numbered and he makes note never to go near the horse ever again.

“You’re missing out on a beautiful bond,” Geralt tells him. Jaskier wrinkles his nose.

*

Jaskier finds Ciri’s Twitter by accident mostly because its got the most quality Geralt memes on the internet currently. It also happens to have some quality memes of him too.

“Geralt, your child is taking advantage of my fame,” he tells him from the bath tub.

He sticks his head in the doorway, “I thought she was _our_ child,” he says, looking the slightest bit amused.

“She’s not when she’s threatening my hands with your horse,” he says and shows Geralt the picture. Its of Roach looking soulless as ever with the caption ‘I have a hunger. A hunger that only hands can satisfy’ and under _that_ picture is a picture of him looking scared with a hand pressed to his chest with the caption ‘Jaskier, somewhere.’ He hadn’t anticipated his reaction to Roach making the internet but it turns out Ciri is sneaky with a camera and has uploaded a lot of funny moments of him and Geralt to Twitter, if mostly out of context small clips that mostly consist of him reacting to something Geralt has said that’s offended him minus Roach, which happens to be the other side of things. Its really the only time Geralt has reacted like that to anything he’s said and he resents that on account of horses are awful soulless beasts. He can see it in their freaky eyeballs.

Geralt frowns, “why are there so many pictures of cartoon llamas with stupid hats?” he asks as he takes Jaskier’s phone to scroll through it. “Oh wait, I see. She’s referenced something the cartoon llamas have said. This is ridiculous, why has it got so many likes and retweets?”

“I assume people find it funny and I do _not_. If Roach goes anywhere near my hands I will call Yennefer on you,” he says, nose in the air.

Geralt rolls his eyes and hands the phone back. “Hmm,” is all he says and Jaskier gasps.

“Don’t you get sarcastic with me!” he says, even _more_ offended when Geralt leaves the room.

He sighs, defeated for now as he starts scrolling through Ciri’s Twitter account and he’s got to hand it to her, her Geralt memes are pretty good. He gets a good giggle out of the one where Ciri has labeled his five stages of grief when Jaskier told him he doesn’t like horses. He gets even more of a giggle out of all the ‘toss a coin to your witcher’ memes that mostly suggest tossing coins at Geralt will result in immediate explosion.

“Why are you laughing?” Geralt asks from the other room.

“Oh nothing, its just that Ciri has made a meme of you having what appear to be godlike powers destroying anyone who sings ‘toss a coin to your witcher’ at you or actually throws coins. She’s quite good at this, maybe Yennefer should hire her for social media things. She seems to know the internet landscape very well given that these have gained such traction.” Then he finds one of _him_ singing toss a coin to your witcher with Geralt’s weird laser eyes with the caption ‘silence, singer’ and he nearly has a fit laughing in the tub.

When Geralt comes in to check on him he decides to test Ciri’s memes. “Toss a coin to your-” he starts and Geralt makes a face.

“For the love of all that is holy _shut up_ ,” he says, confused when it makes Jaskier start laughing all over again.

“You’re adorable,” Jaskier tells him.

Geralt looks irritated, “hmm,” is all he gets out of him before he turns around and walks away.

*

Ciri sits next to him on the lawn and grins, “for the purposes of a Twitter poll how many times do you think you can sing ‘toss a coin to your witcher’ at Geralt before he takes drastic measures? The top vote is once, but I think you’ve got at least five times in you before you get a threat,” she says.

“Definitely closer to ten. First couple times I‘ll get dirty looks, then he’ll probably just tell me to shut up- can’t say I blame him there I talk a _lot_ , and _then_ he’ll take drastic measures.”

Ciri nods, “so we have our bets, lets test this out!” she says excitedly.

Jaskier wiggles in happiness, “yes, torturing Geralt for fun! Probably one of my favorite past times, but don’t tell him that. Also be prepared for a lecture on what you post to Twitter,” he says. He’s already had to listen to it all but he doesn’t much care that Ciri has posted random videos of him to Twitter, they’re all small little clips that are mostly irrelevant. Nothing personal and he’s sure that’s purposeful.

“Ugh, I figured it was a matter of time. So, tormenting Geralt?” she asks and he grins, standing.

It turns out Ciri was the most correct in her guess because the sixth time Jaskier starts the song, including tossing a coin, Geralt loses it. “Jaskier, I don’t know what you’re trying to prove but stop that. You _know_ how much I hate that song,” he says, glaring at him over his book.

Jaskier snorts, “you like my singing so I don’t see what the problem is,” he says, arms crossed over his chest.

Geralt continues to glare at him over his book. “Your singing is like ordering a pie only to find it has no filling,” he says and Jaskier gasps, hand pressed to his chest as he sputters.

“I- you- since when- you need a _nap_ , Geralt!” he says, offended.

From around the corner Ciri lets out a surprised laugh, “that was _mean_! His singing is beautiful!”

“Not that song,” Geralt mumbles, looking back to his book and you know what, he can suffer the consequences when he sleeps on the damn couch tonight.

“ _Rude_!” Jaskier says, walking off before Geralt can say more things he regrets. “I’m mad that you were right,” he tells Ciri as he walks by her.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Geralt calls but he can damn well suffer not knowing, that’s what he gets for acting like _that_.

*

“Jaskier, I apologized,” Geralt says from the doorway carrying his book. He looks adorable, like an overgrown child but Jaskier refuses to give in.

“That’s nice, you can still sleep on the couch for your crimes,” Jaskier tells him.

“Jask,” Geralt says, giving him that _look_ , that one he tries when he thinks he can get what he wants but he’s piss poor at it and he should stop trying. He’s no good at looking like a puppy dog. Mostly he looks a little bit constipated.

“Go on, the couch is waiting,” Jaskier tells him.

Geralt takes a step further into the room looking hopeful and that’s adorable, really, and Jaskier is terrible at telling people no. Its why Yennefer is _like_ that with him and to be fair she rides him hard but she does get results. So he sighs, “fine, you sleep over there,” he says, gesturing to the far side of the bed. Geralt walks over looking relieved for a half a second before Jaskier turns off the light on his bedside table and curls up under his blankets, back to Geralt. Geralt sighs and crawls over to him, wrapping an arm around him and pressing his forehead to the space between his shoulder blades and that is _adorable_.

They stay like that for a few minutes before Geralt speaks. “Your singing is beautiful, Jaskier,” he murmurs, threading his fingers through Jaskier’s and alright he’s only a _man_ , he can’t resist that. “But I still hate toss a coin to your witcher.”

“Well, you _did_ get a lot of quarters thrown at you in America,” he says. And everywhere else too, so he figures he’ll allow that.

“This is why I hate your fans,” Geralt mumbles.

“You hated them long before _that_ ,” Jaskier says. “Not that you’ve disclosed _why_.” He doesn’t get Geralt’s dislike- his entire model of success relies on them liking him. He’s happy they do, he _enjoys_ spending time with them. And nothing is better than the feeling of standing on a stage in a sold out arena listening to _thousands_ of people sing the lyrics of his songs back to him. Its an amazing head rush.

Geralt lets out an irritated sigh. “I don’t like anyone who involves themselves so deeply in the life of someone they don’t even know that they feel the need to invade that person’s life so thoroughly that _Calanthe_ ended up on TMZ. Its disturbing, the way people view you as public property and more widely as a product to consume. You’re a person, and no one treats you like it.”

Jaskier frowns, “neither does Yennefer,” he points out.

“Yennefer is unethical for a lot of other reasons,” Geralt mumbles.

Well, he’ll give Geralt that. “They want to feel like they belong to something, Geralt. That’s not a bad thing.”

“Except that you aren’t something, you’re some _one_. Knowing the lyrics to your songs doesn’t mean they know you, and it certainly doesn’t mean you owe them shit.”

Except his entire career but he feels like Geralt has thought of answers to that too so he lets it go. He lets go of Geralt’s hand and turns around, reaching up and brushing some of his hair out of his face. “What, mad that you have to share me?” he asks and Geralt snorts.

“I’m not sharing you with your fans, I’m not even sharing you with Yennefer. I know sides of you that I’m sure not many people, if any, have ever seen. So no, I’m not by any means threatened by your fans,” he says matter of factly and that’s… really sweet, actually.

He settles back in beside Geralt, wrapping an arm around him when Geralt leans in and presses his head to Jaskier’s chest. They stay like that for a long time, enjoying each other’s presence before he says something. “You have seen sides of me no one else has. I wish you hadn’t,” he murmurs. The longer he goes without the drugs the more reckless and stupid his actions seem and Geralt was the one dealing with the brunt of it. Yennefer doesn’t have a single iota of empathy in there he _swears_ and Geralt, for all his grumpy behavior and lack of proper sentence structure, is surprisingly inclined to care taker roles. Its why he’s much better with Ciri than he seems to think he is. Its why he was so good with Jaskier at his worst.

“Its fine, Jask. I love you all the same,” Geralt tells him and he smiles, hugging Geralt to him tighter. He’s got no clue what he did to end up with someone as great as Geralt but he’ll take it.

*

Yennefer decides to play Jaskier’s new songs as she works mostly because she might as well get more than one thing done at once but the lyrics catch her attention enough for her to pause. She pulls up the playlist Jaskier sent and locates the song playing and frowns. Cirilla.

She restarts the song and follows along with the lyrics, ignoring the way her eyes water as the song continues. Its clearly written to be from Geralt’s point of view talking about Cirilla or more accurately his inability to connect to her. The song is slow and sad as Geralt tries to hold himself back out of misguided love until the tune changes and so does the point of view. Cirilla’s bit is less sad, more hopeful as Jaskier sings about her understanding and patience, the way she waits for Geralt to wake up and realize there’s nothing wrong with him and that holding her at arms length doesn’t do anyone any good. Jaskier sings about how she knows Geralt’s walls will come down eventually, even if they’ve been up her whole life, because she sees things in Geralt that he doesn’t see in himself.

The last thing she expects when the song ends is to sniff, wiping tears away from her face because she’s never really been the type to show emotion. Not in a long, _long_ time. She learned a good while ago that all that does is limit her even further and she doesn’t have the patience for it. So she sighs, gathering herself a little before calling Jaskier.

“Yennefer its so _early_ ,” he mumbles into the phone.

“I listened to Cirilla,” she tells him and he sighs.

“I know its sad and that its not terribly catchy but I’ve been working on some other things and-”

“Jaskier, its beautiful. Have you got anything else like that?” she asks. Sad songs aren’t her thing, no, but she’s learned she has a talent for sniffing out unexpectedly good things. Its why she dragged Jaskier off the street and into a recording studio only for him to be a hit sensation less than a couple months later.

“Oh, sure. I’ve uh, got lots I guess,” he says, sounding confused.

“Good. Send it all to me,” she tells him. “And how do you think Geralt would react to an interview?” she adds.

Jaskier snorts, “Yennefer, if you think _I’m_ bad in interviews for not following your cue cards Geralt will be _so much_ worse.”

Yeah, she pretty much thought the same thing but she figures its good to get a second opinion. “Worse entertaining or worse I’m doing damage control?” she asks.

Jaskier pauses for a moment, considering. “Both,” he decides and Yennefer laughs.

“Too bad, I figure we’d get a good giggle out of some of his answers to interviewer questions.”

“I mean, if you want to risk it I will be happy to laugh along with you but I think someone may die if you go ahead with it. If he agrees at all,” Jaskier points out.

“I’ll keep you updated if anything pans out,” she says, “and send me more songs, we have an album to make, Jaskier, and you’ve been slacking.”

*

Jaskier sits at a table, phone in front of his face as he grins into the camera. “So people keep asking me why I chose to become a singer of all things. And let me tell you, I used to wonder why people ever committed murder. Like taking a human life, that’s horrible, I didn’t used to get that but _then_ I worked at a Nandos for two years. The last straw was this god awful smelling green haired goblin looking _gremlin_ of a man walking up to me and telling me that I don’t know how to do my job because his order was wrong. Then I realized, _oh_ , that’s why people commit murder. And for all of you that think that doesn’t sound that bad one, you’ve _obviously_ never worked in customer service before and two, his order wasn’t even wrong he just misread the menu and decided his poor eyesight was _my_ fault. Anyway, I had _had_ it at that point and I quit on the spot and decided I was going to sing. My manager was all ‘Jaskier, you’ll never be famous’ but guess who’s the best selling artist in fifteen different countries and guess who got fired for sexually harassing the employees? _Suck_ it Tom, you were an asshole and now I’m famous, and only one of us is allowed into this Nandos,” he says, grinning into the camera as he ends the video and posts it to his Twitter.

“You decided you wanted to murder a guy because he said you got his order wrong?” Geralt asks and Jaskier lets out an offended noise.

“Geralt, you’ve never worked in a Nandos so _trust_ me when I say if you had you’d _know_ what I meant. Customers are the worst people in the world,” he says.

“You’re currently a customer,” Geralt points out.

“And I’m _obviously_ the worst, why do you think I’m exempt? Ciri, you get it right?” he asks and she nods.

“Don’t look at me like that Geralt, I had to work at the golf course last summer and there is nothing worse than drunk men who want more alcohol. I was tempted to run over more than one with the golf carts.”

Jaskier snickers and high fives her while Geralt looks concerned. “You know that one American movie where all murder is legalized for like a day? Customer service employees deserve that more than anyone. Oh, to be able to tell people they’re dumber than a sack of hammers with no heads and not get fired about it,” he says, hand pressed to his heart. “That’s the stuff.”

Ciri nods, “the purge for customer service workers is overdue. I’d sell my soul to be able to tell drunk men that they’re not as smart as they think they are and that they smell like pickled piss.”

Geralt frowns, “maybe I had luck, mostly working with horses in barnes.”

“Is that seriously your job experience? Yennefer hired a _horse brusher_ to make sure I don’t die? _What_?” he asks because he’s never heard this before. Perhaps he was wrong to assume to get a body guard position with a famous celebrity you’d have to have experience with that but clearly _not_. And to think he had to have three years experience with customer service to get a job at the god damn Nandos.

Geralt rolls his eyes, “I have more qualifications than that, Jaskier. But I did mostly work with horses before you and let me tell you the horses were less of a pain in my ass.”

“No he doesn’t, I know this because I’ve known him all my life and all he’s done is work with horses. I can’t even believe he got that job from Yennefer, I had to have more experience to get that golf course job than he did to get his job with you,” Ciri says and he shakes his head.

“Honestly, what a _world_ of difference knowing someone will get you,” he says.

“I am trained in like _five_ different material arts and I know how to use a broad sword correctly,” Geralt says, offended that they’ve insulted his lack of job experience.

“What will knowing how to use a broad sword get you, Geralt?” Jaskier asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Arrested, if you’re not afraid of cops,” Geralt says without missing a beat and Jaskier snorts and starts laughing.

“Amazing, this is why I love you,” Jaskier tells him. “That, and you’ve got a _great_ ass.”

**Author's Note:**

> [My writing Tumblr](https://tenspencerriedplease.tumblr.com/)


End file.
